Newton's involvement in alchemy and the Philosopher's Stone

[zoobyshoe]

This is not a secret or surprising, I thought it was well known and understood by most.

It has never been mentioned in any physics text or even popular book on the subject I've ever read. This is, apparently, the first time anyone has tried to systematically go through these notebooks and "decode" all the terminology. He never published any alchemical stuff, and it's clear that, while it may have been known he was knowledgeable about it, he was certainly keeping his own research secret.

People of the era were very superstious as a rule, why would you expect Newton to be any different?

Because he was Newton.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Newton was in a whole other league of cruelty. He evidently enjoyed interrogating and sentencing people to be hanged, drawn and quartered. I think he got 10 in total, all for counterfeiting.

This is disturbing.